Acting doesn’t get more nuanced than in this sublime marital drama by Andrew Haigh. Flawlessly played by Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, the couple’s attempts to cope with a haunting secret from the past prove utterly devastating. Read the full review

100 Yen Love

As Japan’s nominee for the 2016 best foreign language film Oscar, Masaharu Take’s indie hit goes from the utterly glum to the ecstatically stirring in its story about a reclusive woman who belatedly finds her worth in amateur boxing. Read the full review

Anomalisa

A stop-motion animation set in a drab hotel, Charlie Kaufman’s romance is also a profound undertaking that alternately sheds light on and poses new questions about the human condition. A one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Read the full review

April and the Extraordinary World

The wildly imaginative vision of the French graphic novelist Jacques Tardi is given vivid life in this hand-drawn animation, which follows a young woman and her talking cat as they navigate an alternate Paris that’s still stuck in the Age of Steam. Read the full review

Brooklyn

Saoirse Ronan might have missed out on the best actress Oscar, but her stunning performance as an Irish immigrant in 1950s New York still provides the emotional anchor in Nick Hornby’s marvellous adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel. Read the full review

Captain America: Civil War

Marvel fans couldn’t have hoped for a better appetiser to the two-part Avengers: Infinity War than this superhero extravaganza, which pits Cap against Iron Man in a thoroughly engaging way that Batman and Superman could only dream of. Read the full review

Carol

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara leave an indelible impression as a pair of lesbian lovers in 1950s Manhattan in this utterly enthralling film by Todd Haynes. His portrayal of longing and desire against social norms is as timely as it is timeless. Read the full review

Dheepan

A trio of immigrants who fled the Sri Lankan civil war form a surrogate family in Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winner, which powerfully reveals the emotional scars that remain in these new residents of a crime-ridden Parisian suburb. Read the full review

Eye in the Sky

Featuring Alan Rickman’s final role, Gavin Hood’s drone warfare drama is intriguingly structured and expertly executed, and wholeheartedly embraces the moral complexities of one of the most divisive issues of modern military combat. Read the full review

The Handmaiden

Billed by some as a lurid lesbian potboiler when it premiered in Cannes, The Handmaiden is much more lavish than this reductive description suggests. Boldly crafted, assuredly told, it’s another splendid work from Park Chan-wook. Read the full review

I Am A Hero

At long last a worthy new entry in the slumping zombie movie genre, Shinsuke Sato’s hugely satisfying manga adaptation follows a few morally ambiguous characters as they look to fend off a zombie apocalypse. A must-see for horror fans. Read the full review

The Jungle Book

Having spawned Disney’s animated wonder, the Rudyard Kipling classic is again turned into a visually stunning and emotionally engaging live-action feature, which retains even the musical staples The Bare Necessities and I Wan’na Be Like You from the 1967 film. Read the full review

Mustang

Playing like a distant cousin of The Virgin Suicides, Turkish-French filmmaker Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Oscar-nominated debut tells the bittersweet story of five sisters discovering their sexuality while being imprisoned in their provincial home. Read the full review

Giddy and heart-warming, this 1980s-set musical-romance by Irish writer-director John Carney (Once) follows a Dublin schoolboy’s attempt to start a band and impress a girl – complete with an endearing cast, beautiful tunes, and an infectious sense of optimism. Read the full review

Mr. Six

One of China’s eminent filmmakers steps forward to deliver a stunning performance in this gritty crime thriller, which sees Feng Xiaogang play a former gang leader who comes out of retirement in a Beijing society dramatically changed by capitalism. Read the full review

Son of Saul

The senseless horror of the Holocaust is given the experimental psychodrama treatment in this year’s best-foreign-language Oscar winner, which follows a death camp inmate’s stoic attempt to retain a trace of humanity in the midst of the genocide. Read the full review

Spotlight

A fact-based drama that’s also surprisingly electrifying, Tom McCarthy’s Oscar winner about the Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic church child abuse scandals is a masterful journalism thriller on par with All the President’s Men. Read the full review

Steve Jobs

Michael Fassbender may look nothing like Steve Jobs, but his mesmerising turn as the flawed Apple co-founder lends the needed gravity to Aaron Sorkin’s pitch-perfect script, which thrillingly revisits Jobs before three of his product launches. Read the full review